May 2003

The recipe for success is in the ingredients

by Drs. Kevin Pallis and Ed Plentz

As a practicing D.C. you must wear many hats to continually grow in today's marketplace. You must first wear the clinical hat of a competent chiropractor. You must also wear the hat of a manager of people, including your C.A.s. And how about the hat of a successful businessperson and entrepreneur?

The one hat you may not be aware of is the chef's hat, the big puffy white one. If you don't know the recipe for successful patient interactions, your practice will be relegated to a hit or miss fiasco.

For a chiropractic office to continually grow, the recipe has to be used in its entirety every time not just sometimes, with only certain types of patients. This is what delivers growth on a predictable, consistent basis. How many times have we as D.C.s rushed a patient, or let a grumpy or demanding patient dictate the atmosphere of their clinical care? Do they really need a report of findings or should you just put them on the table and adjust them?

The recipe for successful patient interactions has certain ingredients that must be used every time and in a certain order. The yeast can't be added after the bread doesn't rise. Trying to use the ingredients after the patient has discontinued care is a gigantic waste of time and causes a lot of stress and friction between the D.C. and the staff.

What are the ingredients? There are seven of them.

Ingredient #1 -- The consultation. You have to communicate to patients what you are going to do, how much it costs, and you have to give them the dignity to make a conscious decision that this is the office that fits their health care needs.

Ingredient #2 -- The case history. You are introducing a brand new concept, spinal injuries...not a symptom survey. All of a patient's life has been dedicated to case histories that find pain and disease. This case history alerts patients that they have many causes of spinal injuries -- the ones they remembered and the ones that have remembered them, and healed wrong, weakened the spine, and damaged their nerve system.

Ingredient #3 -- The exam. Not another boring exam, one that leaves the patient breathless and wondering what just happened! The exam is designed to uncover all the lifetime spinal injuries that have healed wrong. Patients realize very quickly that their spine is a lot worse off than they imagined and it's worthy of their full consideration and resources.

Ingredient #4 -- The report of findings. This is the moment that the jury (patients) have returned with the verdict. Will they accept your recommendations for care, or will they resist your recommendations and your fee structure? If all the ingredients have added up to this point, in the right order, most of your patients will say YES to your recommendations for care.

Ingredient #5 -- The doorway to wellness. You must have in your office procedures an exam and report visit that signifies patients have completed their initial acute, up front care, and are now entering a new arena...wellness. If you have a smorgasbord of care all lumped together, it overwhelms patients and they respond to this with dropout and decreased referral activity. It doesn't matter if they have paid up front, or are on a yearly plan for their care, they will get casual with their adjustment schedule, stop referring, or just discontinue care. Sound familiar? Patients like everyone else are motivated when they see progress and graduation from condition-based care to a new concept... wellness.

Ingredient #6 -- A wellness patient care fee system. At Renaissance, we've had a fee system that's been around since 1977. The reason it's still around is simple: it works. This is not a dual fee system. This is care above and beyond the patient's up front care. This is the vehicle that allows everyone in your community to participate in wellness chiropractic. This makes wellness available to anyone that wants to be a part of the solution to the world's problems instead of being part of the continuing problem.

Ingredient #7 -- A New Patient Orientation AND office environment of greatness. You must have a weekly broadcast of what chiropractic really is, and how your community can regain their health and humanity. You must also have an office environment that reflects your wellness intent in all patients. Having pain and symptoms posters is not going to cut it. In today's marketplace you must have a complete system (recipe) of patient education and office procedure, or the cake will fall.

(A complete system of practice based on science and philosophy working on the doctor from the inside out, The New Renaissance is the next generation of office procedure, chiropractic mindset for success, and patient education for today's chiropractor. The new Mentor IV Practice Development Program takes 24 years of the pioneering experience of Renaissance procedures and combines it with the practical daily activities of doctors in the field. Learn more about The New Renaissance by contacting Dr. Kevin Pallis at 781/255-7080, Dr. Ed Plentz at 517/592-8208, or The New Renaissance world headquarters, 800/525-3879.)